Nowadays, data projectors as image projection apparatus which project, for example, a picture generated by a personal computer, a video image, and an image of image data stored in a memory card or the like onto a screen are in common use. In such projectors, light emitted from a light source is focused on a micromirror display element called a digital micromirror device (DMD) or a liquid crystal panel, whereby a color image is displayed on a screen.
Such projectors mainly employ a high-luminance discharge lamp as a light source. However, in recent years, a wide variety of projectors which employ light-emitting diodes, laser diodes, or organic EL devices, phosphors, etc. as light sources have been developed.
Incidentally, JP-A-2011-13313 (FIG. 5) discloses a projector which is equipped with plural laser light sources and collimator lenses corresponding to the respective laser light sources and in which excitation light beams that have been emitted from the laser light sources and passed through the collimator lenses are applied to respective phosphor layers of a phosphor wheel via a convex lens as a condenser lens, whereby fluorescent light beams are emitted from the phosphor layers.
However, in the configuration of the projector disclosed in JP-A-2011-13313, if the number of laser light sources and collimator lenses is increased and arranged two-dimensionally, that is, in rows and columns, to attain high luminance, a relatively large condenser lens becomes necessary. Thus, manufacturing costs and the size of a projector cabinet may increase.